Spoilers actually make people enjoy TV shows more, according to a new study

Don't get angry the next time someone spoils the latest
episode of "Game of Thrones" for you — thank
them, because they might have just made it
more enjoyable for you.

According to research by Nicholas Christenfeld, a UC San
Diego psychology professor, spoilers don't necessarily ruin the
experience of watching or reading a story, even though a majority
of people claim they do.

To test the theory, Christenfeld and his team experimented with
three different literary genres and two different groups. One
group read a short story and responded to it, while the other
group had the stories "accidentally" ruined for them beforehand.

"What we found, remarkably, was if you spoil stories they
actually enjoy them
more," Christenfeld said.

Case in point, romantic comedies and mysteries continue to
be popular genres, though people generally
anticipate their endings.

"The point is, really, we're not watching these things for
the ending," Christenfeld said. "I point out to the skeptics,
people watch these movies more than once happily, and often with
increasing pleasure."

Christenfeld also explained that knowing what is happening
in advance gives readers and viewers a deeper understanding of
the work.

"If you know the ending as you watch it, you can understand
what the [creator] is doing. You get to see this broader
view, and essentially understand the story more fluently,"
Christenfeld said. "There's lots of evidence that this sort of
fluent processing of information is pleasurable; that is, some
familiarity with a work of art enables you to enjoy it
more."

In any case, if you believe that spoilers do indeed
spoil things, and still want to avoid them, good luck out
there.